[7] On February 14, 2011, it was announced that Zinck was among four people facing criminal charges in connection with the RCMP investigation into 2010s MLA expense scandal.
Zinck was charged with fraud exceeding $5,000, breach of trust by a public officer, and two counts of theft over $5,000, after filing fraudulent expense claims totalling $10,060.
[9] The business manager of a non-profit woodworking shop, a man by the name of Gus Brushett, testified that Zinck had paid $660 to participate in a golf tournament in the summer of 2008 and subsequently filed an expense claim for $1,200 in April 2008, for which he was reimbursed.
[9] The Crown also introduced Zinck's bank records as evidence which showed a series of late-night withdrawals made from his personal and constituency accounts from automated teller machines inside Casino Nova Scotia in Halifax.
He made the decision after being informed by a reporter that his severance package, formally called a "transition allowance", would not be available to him should his exit from the legislature come via expulsion.
[17] Zinck stated upon his resignation that he didn't want to lose the transition allowance because a single mother employed at his constituency office would then be left with no income.
[19] His lawyer, Lyle Howe, asked Judge Glen McDougall for the delay in order to get a mental health assessment for his client.
[19] On August 16, 2013, Zinck's sentencing hearing was again rescheduled to October 1, 2013, when Howe told the provincial Supreme Court that he required more time to prepare.
[6] Following an incident on October 2, 2013, Zinck was charged with impaired driving[25] after registering a breathalyzer reading above the legal limit of 80 milligrams of alcohol in 100 millilitres of blood.
[26] On March 27, 2015, Halifax Regional Police officer Dan Kavanaugh told the provincial court that Zinck was belligerent and resistant when he was pulled over for a breathalyzer test on October 2, 2013.
Kavanaugh said Zinck initially agreed to the breathalyzer but became increasingly unco-operative and began cursing and shouting, asking the police if they knew who he was.
[29] On April 6, 2018, Halifax Regional Police issued a missing persons' news release seeking the public's help in locating the 47-year-old Zinck, who at that time had reportedly last been seen approximately one month prior in the Parkstone Road area of Dartmouth.